OceanaGold is well on its way to have a process in place to conform with the World Gold Council’s Responsible Gold Mining Principles (RGMPs).
OceanaGold’s General Manager for Health, Safety and Environment, Greg Scanlan, said OceanaGold was closing out the second year of a three-year preparedness program, and was working to demonstrate conformance with the RGMPs by September this year.
“In 2021, each World Gold Council member company was required to complete a self-assessment, to identify the gaps remaining to conform to the RGMPs,” Greg said.
“This gap assessment helped identify conformance and areas for continuous improvement around environment, social and governance (ESG) internal systems and processes,” he said.
“The second-year self-assessment process was then validated through external assurance in September 2021, to confirm OceanaGold continues to progress our first-year corrective action plans against identified continuous improvement opportunities. ”
“OceanaGold has a strong commitment to sustainable practices across its Global operations and prides itself as a strong ESG performer. We see conformance to the RGMP’s as another way to demonstrate our commitment to integrated performance across functions.”
Greg said the company’s performance in the year two self-assessment had identified some additional continuous improvement opportunities but confirms OceanaGold is on the right track.
“We acknowledge that if the requirements of the RGMPs were applied at the time of the Year 2 assurance audit (September 2021), we would have difficulty demonstrating conformance in certain governance sub principles. However, work required to meet these RGMP sub principles requires a longer lead time to reach full conformance (for example, establishing and embedding the responsible supply chain framework). Our development of these processes and detailed action plans will support future conformance.”
“Upholding high standards is part of our culture at OceanaGold and is good business. It’s what every global company strives for.”
Going into 2022, the key continuous improvement areas for OceanaGold include:
Environment
- Continuing to develop Energy Management plans that identify emission reduction opportunities in support of the delivery of OceanaGold’s interim carbon reduction targets and transition to Net Zero Emissions by 2050.
- Build business resilience by understanding climate change risks to the business based on IPCC global warming models (physical and transition risk assessments undertaken for all assets) and making relevant disclosures in accordance with the recommendations made by the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
- Strengthening closure planning processes and ensuring robust water management systems are implemented at each operation.
Social
- Continuing to mature the social performance systems at each operation, including undertaking social risk assessments.
- Continuing Human Rights Policy training.
- Continuing to enhance robust stakeholder engagement processes.
Governance
- Developing and implementing a multi-year action plan for responsible supply chain processes across the organisation, including human rights and modern slavery.
Reviewing and enhancing our processes for permitting and consenting governance and where relevant, incorporating it into business practices and decision-making.
